Wednesday, July 1, 2015 -- Part II -- US Economy; Chicago Public School System Not Doing As Well As US Auto Industry

Updates

July 2, 2015: by the way, this is an excellent example of obfuscation. On the very day that the rest of the car companies are announcing their monthly sales (June, 2015, sales), Elon Musk chooses to release his second quarter delivery figures. We've already discussed the discrepancy between "sales" and "deliveries." But it really appears folks are confusing monthly with quarterly. Even if Musk's 11,000 deliveries is accurate, that's a quarterly figure, folks, not monthly.

July 2, 2015: either I'm missing something, or there seems to be a disconnect. Tesla only sells one model, so it's easy to compare. Compare the data at these sites:

• insideEVs: 11, 600 delivered "to date," first six months of the year
• FinanceYahoo: 11,507 delivered in the 2nd quarter of the year

From the linked FinanceYahoo article:

The Palo Alto, California, company had surpassed 10,000 vehicles for the first time in the first three months of the year and on Thursday said it had broken that record, delivering 11,507 vehicles.

I must be misreading something, or perhaps insideEVs is "reconciling" sales data from sources other than Elon Musk's delivery numbers. 

Regardless, Tesla has its niche as a battery company disguised as an automobile company surviving on mass amounts of subsidies and tax credits. Every successful company has its niche, and that's Tesla's.

Original Post 

Note: the month of June ended yesterday. US automakers have sales figures out first thing next business day. Meanwhile, strictly controlled US imports of crude oil -- most recent data is still dated April 15, 2015, and here it is July. 

Auto sales:

Fiat Chrysler sales rise 8 percent on strong Jeep sales:

Sales of Fiat Chrysler's Jeep brand jumped 25 percent in June, led by a 39 percent surge in mid-sized Cherokee sales, the company said on Wednesday.

Chrysler 200 sedan sales rose 153 percent to 18,560 vehicles. Private industry data reviewed by Reuters showed that in the first half of the year, a large portion of Chrysler 200 sedan sales were to rental agencies.

Sales of the Chrysler brand rose 28 percent, despite Town & Country minivan production slowing as the plant where it is made is in transition to a new model.

Ford:  Ford U.S. Sales Up on Strong Customer Demand for Newest Products – F-Series, Mustang, Edge, Explorer, Transit Vans --

• Ford brand SUVs sales up 10 percent, delivering best June sales performance since 2002
• sales of all-new Ford Edge up 30 percent
• new Explorer up 30 percent versus last year 
• Ford F-Series achieves record average transaction pricing, while all-new F-150 turns twice as fast on dealer lots than industry’s half-ton pickup segment
• Ford Transit commercial vans post best June sales since 1999 
• Ford Mustang has best June performance since 2007 
• Lincoln delivers best June retail sales results in eight years 
• Ford Motor Company total U.S. sales increase 2 percent last month 

EV sales: June / to date this year --

• Tesla Mode S: 2,800 (deliveries) / 11,600
• Nissan LEAF: 2,074 / 9,816
• Chevrolet Volt: 1,225 / 5,622
• BMW i3: -- / 3,905
• Ford Fusion Energi: -- / 3,563
• Fiat 500e: 363 / 3,384
• Ford C-Max Energi: -- / 2,876
• Toyota Priius PHV: 464 / 2,890

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Chicago

The AP is reporting that the Chicago public school system is not doing quite as well as the US auto industry:

The interim CEO of Chicago Public Schools said Tuesday 1,400 jobs will be "impacted" after Illinois lawmakers failed to provide relief and the financially struggling district had to borrow money to make a $634 million contribution to its teacher pension funds.